Modal
Verbs and their Uses

Modal verbs
are helping verbs that indicate various levels of certainty, possibility, or
duty. There are three rules that make them different from regular verbs or other helping verbs.

Modal verbs have only one form. (They do not change
for person or tense).

The verbs that immediately follow them are always in
the base form, even for third person singular or in the past. (This is
also true of ‘do,’ but not of other helping verbs.)

Modals cannot be used alone (without a main
verb) in a sentence, except in short answers: “Can you see him?” ”Yes, I
can.” “Should I call him?” “No, you shouldn’t.”

The Common Modals (Affirmative and
Negative) Are:

Conversation using modal verbs

Conversation using modal verbs

can, can’t,

could, couldn’t,

will, won’t,

would,
wouldn’t,

should, shouldn’t,

ought to, ought not (to),

must, must not,

may, may not,

might, might not

Uses and Meanings of
Different Modal Verbs

Can and Could

‘Can’ tells what is possible.

Newborn babies can't do much besides eat and sleep. By the time they are about one year old, children have learned to crawl, then to walk, and to say a few words. Before long toddlers can climb, run, and say whatever they need to say.

‘Could’ tells what was possible in the past. (When I was young, I could run fast, but now I can’t.)

'Could' is also often used like ’might’ to express limited probability, and as a polite way of requesting help or permission. Examples:

Could you please open the door?

Could I have next Friday off? (‘Can’ is also sometimes used to request help or permission, but it is not quite so polite. ‘May’ is the most proper form for asking permission.)

Will and Would

We use ‘will’ (or ‘be going to’-- not a modal
verb) to talk about the future. ‘Will’ can also express determination.

It is often shortened to -‘ll.“He’ll go tomorrow, but she won’t.” (Won't is the negative contraction-- will+ not.) When
ordering at a restaurant: “I’ll have the roast beef with mashed potatoes,
please.” (You could also say, “I’d like the roast beef,” or “Could I have the
toast beef, please?”)

We use ‘would’ (or its contraction: -‘d) as shown above, for making polite
requests:

-- Sue: “Would you like some more fish?”

-- Mary: “Thanks, but I’d rather have some ice cream now.”

(I’d is the contracted form
of ‘I would.’ We also use you’d, he’d, she’d, it’d, we’d, and they’d:

-- “You’d like my brother if
you could meet him. I think he’d like you, too. Maybe you can come home with me
this summer. It’d be great for you to meet my family, and I’m sure they’d be
thrilled to have you. We’d have a fantastic time!”)

We also use ‘would’ when our action depends on certain conditions. There
are several conditional forms. You can
say, “I will go if it doesn’t rain,” or “I would go, but I think it’s going to
rain” (which means that in fact you won’t go).

You could
also say, “If I won a million dollars, I ‘d travel around the world” (an
imaginary or ‘unreal conditional’. You probably won’t win the money, so you
won’t travel. Note that the verb after ‘if’ here is in the past tense form,
even though you’re talking about the future.That’s the correct form for the
unreal conditional tense. It makes it
clear that this is a very unlikely event.)

You can also
use ‘would’ with a conditional (if) clause in the past perfect to talk about
how things might be different now if the past had been different.

“If you had
been watching, you wouldn’t have hit that car.”

“If I had studied harder, I
would (or might, or could) have gotten into Harvard.” However, you didn’t study
hard enough, so you didn’t get accepted.

May, Might, & Shall

‘May’ is the correct modal to ask for permission (though ’could’ is also polite and ‘can’ is used quite often, especially by children.) ‘May’ also expresses limited probability.

‘Might’ suggests that something is unlikely, but possible. “It may rain tomorrow” means maybe it will rain-- I don’t really know. “It might rain” can mean the same thing, but suggests it is more likely that it won’t rain.

There is one more rarely-used modal verb: shall and shall not or shan’t.

In the past, shall was used for the first person future instead of will-- or they might be reversed to express very strong determination: (“You shall not die!” he cried. “I will not let it happen!”)

Shall is not used very commonly anymore except as an invitation or suggestion: “Shall we dance?” (Even then, “let’s dance” is more common, at least in the U.S.)

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